The Devil Went Down to Vytal
by lsdanddolphinhands
Summary: Sora gets whisked away to the world of Vytal, and finds an army of Heartless there waiting for him. With the help of the students of Beacon, he musy find out who is commanding these Heartless, and lock the world's keyhole.
1. I think I saw this in a video game, once

Yang sat in the chair, facing Ruby. The younger sibling was looking out the window of the train, chewing gum. Yes, Yang _had_ suggested that team RWBY needed a vacation, and yes she WAS excited about the trip. But she could _not _stand the train ride. Yang didn't like being cooped up. She didn't like not doing _anything. _Which was what was happening right then. Blake had taken to reading her novel (obviously), Weiss was napping, and Ruby had taken to just admiring the view. This was _boring._ Nobody was doing anything, nothing was happening. Yang could only sit and wait.

_...pop_

_...pop_

_...pop_

Yang felt her eye twitch. Ruby was popping her gum. She didn't notice her older sister slowly having a mental breakdown. Yang gritted her teeth, patience draining fast.

_...pop_

"Alright, that's it! I'm gonna go talk a walk," Yang got up and quickly left the team's cabin, not wanting to blow up on her sister. Ruby watched her walk out and gave Blake a quizzical look. Blake 'hmm'd in agreement. Ruby shrugged and went back to looking out the window.

Yang stalked the corridors of the there had to be something to do! She was getting antsy and pacing the halls weren't helping. Yang moved from traincar to traincar, aimlessly wandering. She stepped into a cart filled with cargo, and felt that that something was wrong. She had a gut feeling, like something bad was about to happen. The only illumination in the cart was a lamp swinging wildly from the ceiling. Yang frowned. She could have sworn she saw someone. Moving further into the car, Yang tried to make out anybody in there. Did it just get colder?

"Hello?" she called out. "Is anybody there?"

Then the lamp swung as the train rattled, and briefly illuminated someone in a black cloak. Yang gasped. Who was that? The lamp arced once more, but the man was gone. Yang furrowed her brow. What the hell just happened? Was that a ghost? What was he doing? Yang shook her head and decided that the best course of action was to leave. She turned and exited the cart. She was halfway along the next cart, when there was a loud _bang_ and Yang was thrown onto the floor.

"Woah!" That was unexpected, to say the least. She quickly got up and looked behind her. Did that train cart just explode?! She had to get back to her team. Yang bolted through the cart. She sprinted through the cars. By now the whole train was violently shaking. Suddenly the train came to a grinding halt. Yang stumbled and recovered. She had to get back. If anything had happened to her team, she would have never been able to forgive herself.

Once Yang reached the compartment, she immediately threw open the door.

"Yang?! What happened?!" Ruby questioned her sister. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, sis," Yang replied, relieved that her team was safe. "I don't think it's safe to be here, though."

Ruby nodded and looked to her other teammates.

"Let's get out of here." With that, team RWBY exited the compartment. They barely got five feet away when they felt another explosion. All of them were knocked down. Weiss was the first to recover. She pulled Ruby to her feet, when she heard a groan of metal. She slowly the cart of the train tipping downwards. She stumbled and slid downwards as the cart continued titanic-ing. She slid down to the door of the train and collided with a yelp. She heard the cracking of glass as her head connected to a window. Weiss quickly got up and looked up towards the rest of team RWBY. Ruby and Blake had stuck their blades into walls of the train and Yang was hanging onto Blake. Weiss prepared to leap up to help her team, when she heard more groaning of metal.

"Weiss!" Ruby shrieked at her, before Weiss felt her ground give way. The door had swung open under her. She wildly shot her hand out, trying to find purchase. She gave a yelp as she grabbed onto the handle of the door. That was close. Weiss looked down. It was a chasm. The train had been on a bridge when it blew up. The cart that they were on was hanging off the edge of the cliff, which explained the sudden shift in gravity.

"Weiss, can you get up here?" Ruby asked her friend. Weiss looked up at Ruby and frowned. What were they still doing here?

"What are you guys doing? Get up there before the trains goes over the edge!" Even when hanging off a train that was hanging off a cliff, Weiss could still find a reason to get mad.

"We're not gonna just leave you!" Yang yelled at her.

"Just go on! I'll catch up, don't worry about me!"

"Weiss..." Ruby looked at her.

"Just go! I'll be fine. Trust me," Weiss said to her companions.

She watched them clamber up towards the top and withdrew her rapier. She took a breath, counted to three, and summoned a rune underneath herself. She propelled herself upwards and grabbed onto a lamp on the ceiling. She jumped up towards the door, grabbing the handle and pulling herself up the doorway. Weiss then summoned another rune and jumped up onto the cliff edge. She landed gracefully, holstered her weapon before dusting herself off. She then felt a heavy weight at her side squeezing her.

"Weiss!" Ruby hugged her. "So glad you're okay!"

Weiss blushed a bit, before she pushed Ruby back. Biting back a smile, she responded,

"Was there any doubt?" Ruby was about to respond with a quip, whenBlake interrupted the two.

"Look," she pointed to the roof the train. Two small, shadowy figures appeared out of nowhere. They were both literally shrouded in shadows, giving them an unnatural feel. Their yellow orbs trained in on the girls, before the seemingly shrunk into the ground.

"Huh?" Yang had already powered her weapons. Two shadows travelled down the side of the train and onto the ground in front of the girls. The two shadows took form again, expanding back into the two small creatures. Yang immediately threw out a punch to one of the creatures. It stumbled, fell down, and immediately got back up as if nothing happened. Yang smiled. It seemed that her boredom problem had been solved. Then, again out of nowhere, more of the creatures appeared. Everyone unholstered their weapons as they faced the swarm of shadows.

"Uh oh," Ruby spoke. If one of them wasn't even affected by Yang's ferocious punch, what were they going to do against ten of them?

Sora supposed that picking up the star shard wasn't a very bright idea. But it wasn't his fault that the moment he picked it up, it immediately activated and whisked him away. He had just found it the mansion in twilight town. Sora mentally smacked himself. He really didn't want to do this.

The star shard flew around some more, seemingly of its own accord. Sora really had no idea how the thing worked. It just went off whenever. Suddenly, he felt the star shard diving. The ground was coming up dangerously fast, and Sora screamed. This was not his day.

A brilliant flash of light went off in front of the girls. The swarm on enemies surrounding them leapt back a few feet.

"What the hell was that?! Guys?"

"Who-"

"I can't see! Yang it's happening again!"

"Ow! Ruby was that you?"

"I think that was me, sorry."

"Ohhh man..."

Slowly, Ruby's vision recovered. She blinked furiously, attempting to quicken the process. As she came to, she saw somebody lying face down on the ground in front of her. He was a teen, about her age, and had spiky brown hair. He was just lying there groaning. Where did he come from? Ruby looked around to the rest of the team. Yang was sitting on the ground, feeling around for something. Blake and Weiss were tangled in heap, the latter desperately trying to untangle herself unconciously making the problem worse.

"Come on, get up guys!" Ruby helped Yang up and untangled her other two swarm around them were closing in, having recovered much faster than the four of them.

"Just- just give me a sec. I think my sight's coming back..." Yang rubbed her eyes. Ruby turned to the new guy.

"Hey, guy! Are you okay? Can you get up?" Ruby kneeled over him and attempted to get him up. He groaned again, shrugging Ruby off of him

"They're getting closer..." Weiss said. Ruby looked around at the shadows. She got up in front of the mysterious new guy.

"Stand back, we got this," Ruby told him. Sora rubbed, then opened his eyes and saw their problem. They were surrounded by heartless.

"Are you kidding me?" Sora summoned his keyblade, Oathkeeper, and poised in his fighting stance. Ruby looked at him, suddenly fully aware and in posession of a weapon (where did it come from?).

"You can fight? I think we're gonna need the help," Ruby said to him. Sora grunted in agreement. The swarm was almost upon them. Then Sora charge forward into the frey. He attacked fast and hard. There were Heartless in this world, too. Did that mean the nobodies weren't far behind? As Sora hacked and slashed, he caught a glimpse of the others fighting. They didn't seem to be doing too bad. They must have been trained, he mused. There was the one with the red cloak. She fought with blinding speed. It looked like a blur of red, rose petals, and what Sora thought looked like an oversized scythe. A Heartless took advantage of his lapse in attentiob and lashed out at him. Sora side stepped and slashed at it. He could almost hear Riku's voice in his head. _Focus, Sora!_ Sora almost intinctively grimaced at that.

Yang was having _ fun_. She laughed as a creature leaping towards her was asily destroyed by a stray shot from Blake. The raven haired girl moved with grace and speed, decimating any enemy that came in contact with her. As Gambol Shroud had long reach, she was carving out enemies with ease. Yang smiled and leapt over to her partner's side, hitting one of the creatures creeping up behind Blake. Blake almost gave a small smile as she felt the familiar feeling of her partner fighting with her. Yang was ferocious,, her attacks knocking enemies down, and out. Blake wouldn't have the fight any other way.

Weiss froze a group of enemies before lunging, breaking the ice and subsequently killing the creatures incased in them. They certainly weren't Grimm, or at least any Grimm she had ever seen. As she was about to slash at a too close, Ruby appeared and slashed at it, before disappearing back into the fray. Weiss furrowed her brows and attacked one to the side. Weiss reared back, noticing that much of the crowd had thinned. She stabbed one last stray one, and that was it. She guessed that the rest must have retreated.

Sora lunged at the heartless, but his keyblade found no connection. The Heartles had disappeared. Huh. He looked around the field. The Heartless had all but gone, leaving the cliffside entirely. He was sure they hadn't killed them all. It all felt... wrong.

"Aww. Where'd the party go? I wasnt done," Yang looked around the cliffside, dissapointed at the lack of monsters. "Ah, well. Good fight while it lasted, I guess."

Ruby hesitently holstered her weapon. Surely that wasn't it? She looked at Sora.

"Hey, new guy! You fight pretty well. What's your name?" She walked towards Sora. After the rush of the battle, Sora had time to take stock at the situation. He was on a cliffside, there were four girls probably about his age, and they all fought really well. There was the red cloaked one, the blonde one, the white haired one and a girl with the bowtie on her head. How cute.

"I'm Sora. Nice to meet you!" Sora extended a hand towards Ruby. She smiled and shook it. She seemed nice, he thought.

"Well Sora, I'm Ruby. This is my team. That's Yang, my sister. That's Weiss, and that's Blake." Ruby pointed to each member. "We're team RWBY."

Sora gave her a quizzical look. Team Ruby? That was kind of vain. Ruby noticed his look and quickly clarified,

"Ruby. Weiss. Blake. Yang." she pointed out. "R. W. B. Y. RWBY. Get it?"

Sora gave a small and a nod. Now he had some questions to answer.

"So Sora, wanna explain what the hell just happened?"


	2. Tall Tales

**AN: Talkin' and stuff. Yay!**

"So, Sora, wanna explain what the hell just happened?" Ruby asked the browned haired stranger. She put her hands on her hips before continuing, "I mean, our trains goes kablooie, we barely escape before we're being swarmed by those things, and then you show up in what I can only assume is an act of God. I mean, seriously!"

Sora winced at her ranted. He guessed they had been having a rough day. He knew the feeling well. He looked to the rest of them, searching their expressions. All of them were looking at him expectedly. While he had been advised to not to tell people of the existence of other worlds, he didn't know how he was going to skirt around that. Sora rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. He exhaled before launching into an explanation.

"Well first of all, I had nothing to do with the uh... train thing," he gestured towards what was left of the train. "As for the 'act of god'..." Sora pulled out the star shard he had previously pocketed. "I found this thing and it sort of went off, I guess. It just started vibrating and the next thing I knew I'm here being surrounded by Heartless."

"Heartless?" Blake questioned.

"Yeah, those things we just fought. Heartless. They're what becomes of you when you're consumed by the darkness." He explained. Blake simply looked at him neutrally. He shrugged.

Blake studied him, before speaking. "You're holding out on us. There's more to it than that." It wasn't a question. Sora rubbed his arm. How was he going to get out of explaining?

"I've never heard or read anything about _that_," she pointed at the star shard in his fist, "or those Heartless creatures." Blake looked directly into his eyes. She might as well have been the devil staring into his soul. Sora was a person of many talents. Fighting, singing (though he would never admit it), saving worlds. He was not a very good liar. No, he was a _terrible _liar. A bead of sweat dripped down his forehead. He squirmed under Blake's gaze (did she even blink?!). He was cracking under pressure.

He gave a shaky breath. Sora had faced giant monsters and Heartless without dropping a sweat. He defeated Xemnas. He stared into the eyes of _Hades_, then proceeded to beat him down. _He would not falter now._ Sora simply tore his gaze away from Blake, looking instead to the white haired girl, Weiss.

_OH GOD IT WAS WORSE._ She seemed to stare straight into his very soul and turned it upside-down DEMANDING answers like a bully looking for lunch money. Her glare was the scariest thing he had ever seen. Sora couldn't take much more. He would much rather stare down Xemnas again. He was scary, but it paled in comparison to her.

"Okay! Okay! Just stop staring at me like that!" Sora raised his hands in defence. Weiss' expression turned into a smug grin. Ruby giggled.

"I see you've aquainted yourself with the infamous 'Schnee Death Stare'. I'm pretty sure she killed an Ursa with it once." She teased the Schnee heiress. Weiss' glare turned to Ruby. She paled and gave a whimper. "'msorryweiss," Ruby mumbled and averted her eyes to the ground. Now it was Sora's turn to laugh. Ruby glared at him. He coughed and launched into another explaination

"Well, it's kind of complicated. See, I'm kinda from... not around here?" He answered tentatively. Yang raised one brow at that.

"I think we got that part, pineapple," she looked to his messy, spikey hair. Sora patted his head and frowned at her. He crossed his arms and turned his nose up at the blonde.

"First of all, I think my hair is fine," (tch!) "And secondly... I'm from another world."

"Hah! Good one. Seriously though," Yang said. Blake looked at him with a funny expression. Weiss rolled her eyes. Ruby, however looked positively excited. She grinned at Sora.

"Aliens! See, Yang! I told you! I told you!" she jabbed a finger at her sister. Yang raised a brow at her.

"Oh come on! You think he's an _alien_?" She crossed her arms and gestured her head towards Sora.

"The bright light, the confused expression he's always having, the-" Sora cut her off then.

"I'm not an alien okay!"

"That's exactly what an alien would say! Wells was ri-" Ruby was silenced by Weiss' hand over her mouth. She looked irritated.

"Enough, Ruby! Let him explain himself," she berated the teen. Ruby blushed. "Right."

Sora sighed. How was he going to prove to them the existence of other worlds. He guessed it was pretty unbelieveable.

"Look, I don't know how I'm going to prove this to you. I'm from another world. There are millions of worlds out there! I go around saving them, sometimes. Those heartless? Their goal is to consume as many hearts as possible. They go around to other worlds to do that. I stop them. Then there was this whole deal with Ansem/Xemnas/Xehanort (I lost track), the Organization XIII, I went around trying to find my friends. saving more worlds. I was turned into a heartless, I made a nobody in the process, and now he's living inside me (Hey! he thought he heard faintly in the back of his mind.). Look, it's a whole thing, alright? I'll explain it all later. We should get to somewhere, unless we were planning to stand here all day?" He ranted. All of them wore confused looks at his lengthy psuedo explaination. Ruby was the first one to speak.

"I guess he's right. We should move."

"In case you haven't noticed, we're pretty out in the middle of no where," Weiss gestured around to their general area. Ruby wrinkled her nose.

"We can follow the train tracks back into Vale. We didn't ride for very long in the train. If we're quick we should get there within the day," there was a reason Ozpin made her team leader. Weiss gave a sigh. Everyone else nodded. With that, Ruby turned to face the gap that the bridge once connected. It was about 5 metres across, if she had to guess. They could make that jump, easy.

"How're we gonna get over there?" Sora asked. He walked to the edge, and looked down. That was quite a drop. Yang looked to Weiss. She whispered something in the white haired girl's ear. Before giving her a thumbs up. Weiss gave a slight smirk. She rarely agreed with Yang on most of her plans. This was one of those rare times. What the hell, the day had been weird so far, right? Why not?

"How's your jumping, stud?" Yang approached Sora. He didn't turn to face her, instead shaking his head.

"Don't think I can jump that far. Well, there was that one time when I was fighting Xemnas, but that was in the World That Neve-" Yang cut him off by picking him up by the midsection. Sora looked behind him.

"Yang, what are you do-" She cut him off by dropping him off the edge of the cliff. Sora screamed. Falling seemed to be a major theme for today. He didn't fall very far, his legs colliding with the... ground?

"Jump, foo'!" he heared Yang call out to him. Sora instinctively followed Yang's intruction. He sprung up high. Soaring through the air, he aimed for the other side of the gap. He fell and rolled, breaking his fall. Once he had recovered, he found that he had summoned his keyblade on instinct. Sora looked towards the other side of the chasm. Team RWBY had apparently been struck down by the mighty force of laughter. He frowned at that. It wasn't funny. Okay, it wasn't _that_ funny. It was definitely not cool, though.

"Not cool!" Sora yelled across the gap. He was met only with more laughter. Laugh it up, ladies. He would get them back.

_Soon._

Once they were done laughing, the rest of the crew crossed the chasm with ease. Blake, with what looked like a gun tied to a string. Yang, with her gauntlets, Ruby with her oversized scythe, and Weiss summoning her circular jumpy-things. Yang smiled at him when she had cleared the gap. She gave a little laugh.

"You scream like a girl," she giggled. Ruby stifled a laugh behind her. Sora crossed his arms. Yang then flicked one of the spikes of his hair before speaking again.

"You're cute when you're all pouty," she grinned at him. Sora blushed at her comment.

"Let's go," he said, changing the topic.

They walked, following the train tracks. The sun shined brightly down on the five. According to Weiss, it was only 11 o'clock. They still had a fair bit of daylight. They walked in silence, until Ruby piped up.

"Well, seeing as we got time, you wanna tell us the rest of your uh... tales? It sounded very exciting in your brief summary."

Sora shrugged. "Sure, I guess. Well it started with my friends back home on Destiny Islands, Riku and Kairi..."

And so, Sora launched into a tale of excitement, action, adventure, romance! It all sounded like a fairy tale. At some points, it literally was. Ruby was enthralled by his story. She got particularly excited when he told them about his adventures in Port Royale. Pirates! Gold! Wenches! Yang reacted to his tales in the Olympus Colesium and subsequent Underworld with vigour. He beat Cerberus, a Hydra, and Hades? Hardcore. And of course all of them squealed in delight when he explained the lengths he went through to save Kairi. How romantic! He literally gave her his heart! Yang nudged him in the ribs.

"This Kairi must mean a lot to you huh?" she winked. Sora flushed beet red and started sputtering.

"Wh-What? N-No it's not like that! She's just my friend!" he stammered out. They all giggled at his reaction. Sora grumbled and continued his story. Roxas and Organization XIII, Xehanort, DiZ, Xemnas. He tried explaining it to the best of his ability, but he wasn't the best story-teller.

"No wait, so DiZ is actually Ansem? And Xehanort took his name when the real Ansem was sent to the realm of darkness?" Ruby clarified. Sora nodded.

"So where's Roxas now?" asked Blake, who had been silent thus far (except for the saving Kairi bit).

"I guess... in here?" he pointed at his heart. "He's a part of me. I guess in a way, you're looking at him." Blake 'hmm'd, nodding.

"We're here." Weiss said. They indeed had reached their destination. Vale train station. The clock on the wall there read nine o'clock. They all jumped onto the platform. Sora looked to the others.

"Where are we going now?" he asked.

"Beacon academy. School. Home." responded Ruby. "Come on, we can take a cab. I'm dead tired."

The others echoed her sentiment. Sora shrugged. Off to Beacon they went.


	3. Knight in shining armour

Ozpin was made aware of team RWBY's arrival the moment thy had passed through Beacon's gates. He was relieved to find that they had survived the train 'accident'. He was also intrigued that they had brought back another survivor to their dorms. He couldn't quite put his finger on why the young man was so... different. Ozpin just had a funny feeling about him. He considered questioning them, but decided to leave that to tomorrow. They deserved a little break after all they had went through today. He was so caught up in his musings, he almost didn't notice Glynda's arrival. She cleared her throat to gather the headmaster's attention before speaking.

"Sir, team RWBY have returned back to Beacon safe. It seems like they brought back a... visitor. Another victim of the incident, I assume."

Ozpin nodded and took a sip from his mug, but found it empty. He frowned at the cup before turning to face Glynda, who was looking at him expectantly.

"We'll contact the authorities and question them tomorrow, Glynda. I think they deserve a little rest first after all they have gone through today," he said to her. She frowned at the headmaster. Ozpin quirked a brow at her.

"Is something the matter?" he asked. The blonde huntress shook her head and pushed up her glasses.

"I don't have a good feeling about this. Did you see the boy they brought back? He seems... out of place," she echoed the older man's musings. Ozpin smiled. He had always liked Glynda. She was perhaps a tad too serious sometimes, but he had always admired her determination and tenacity. He didn't regret at all making her his assistant.

"I agree," he turned to set his cup down on his desk, and opened a drawer. He withdrew a mirror from inside it and placed it down. He looked up and faced the huntress and sighed.

"I fear, Glynda, that something big is coming, and that this is the calm before the storm. The train explosion and the boy's appearance cannot be a coincidence," he elaborated. Glynda simply crossed her arms and listened.

"I assume you are aware of the existence of other worlds?" he asked. She nodded in response. It wasn't common knowledge, instead it was kept secret to the public for their own safety. Many attempts had been made to visit these other worlds, and all of them ended in failure.

"Sir, are you trying to say that these events are the workings of someone from the another world?" Glynda's questioned. Ozpin clasped his hand together before responding.

"That's what I suspect. I hope I'm wrong, for our sake. However, we won't know for sure until we question the boy, which we shall do tomorrow, Glynda, please," he raised a hand to squash the huntress' concerns. She frowned again and pushed her glasses up.

"Very well, headmaster. I shall see you tomorrow," she nodded and exited his office. He looked into the cup, desperate to find more of the caffeinated drink. He sighed and withdrew from his office in search of more coffee from the staff lounge.

Ruby unlocked the door, and team RWBY filed into their room, Sora in tow. Yang unbuckled her ammo belt, discarded her gauntlets and immediately piled onto her bed, giving a soft sigh. The rest of the girls went to change into their nightwear and went through their nightly routine. And to think they had just been on an exploding train a few hours ago. Remembering that, Sora spoke. up.

"Shouldn't you guys maybe call the police or something? They probably want to know what happened."

Ruby yawned and searched the closet for a sleeping bag. Once she had found it, she tossed it over to Sora.

"'morrow. Tired," she said, yawning to emphasize her point. He rolled out the sleeping bag before laying down on it. Shortly thereafter, someone turned off the lights, shrouding the room in complete darkness.

Several hours passed, but Sora could not go to sleep. His mind was churning, replaying the events of the day. He took the star shard out of his pocket. He could try to go home. Maybe if he wished _really hard, _it would activate and and send him back home. Sora snorted. He really had no idea how this thing worked. Besides, he couldn't go home yet. Not until he locked this world's keyhole. Sora suspected something bigger was going on. The train blowing up and him showing up swarmed by Heartless couldn't be a coincidence. Sora turned on his side. When would things be truly over? He gave a soft sigh, summoned Oathkeeper and turned it upside-down to grab the keychain. The lucky charm. He was a long way away from home. Sora rubbed the charm.

"I'll be back soon, guys, promise. I just have to take care of this," he mumured. He intended to make good on that promise.

He rubbed his temple and decided that he wasn't going to get any sleep. He might as well do something to pass the time. Sora got up from his sleeping bag, and silently creeped out the door. He would do some exploring. He exited the dorms, making a mental note of its location in his mind. He looked around, taking in the surroundings. The campus was littered with buildings everywhere he looked. Sora looked around and picked one at random to explore. He entered a colesium looking building on his left. As he walked in, he heard sounds of steel clashing against steel. Someone else was in there. Sora rounded a corner and was greeted with an auditorium. Rows and rows of benches were gathered around the central stage, which was currently being occupied by a student. He wore a black hoodie with a chest and shoulder plate giving him minimal protection. He looked around Sora's age, wielded a sword and shield, and was fighting against a practice bot. Sora took a seat around back, wanting to watch him fight. A single spotlight illuminated the stage, while the rest of the auditorium was shrouded in darkness. The blonde wasn't doing anything yet. He was just standing there. It was almost like he was meditating. Sora just watched.

After a few minutes, he got into a fighting stance. Shield in front, sword ready at his side. The practice bot charged at him. The blonde raised his shield to block the overhead strike from the bot's sword, and lunged his sword at it's midsection. The bot side stepped the attack and gave another overhead swing. Again the boy blocked it, but before he could counter again, the bot attacked quicker, swinging at his midsection. The blow connected, and he stumbled. It took the opportunity and followed it up with an overhead strike for the third time. As the blade was about to connect, it abruptly stopped inches awat from him. He gave a strangled cry of frustration at his failure.

Sora frowned before standing up, deciding to help him out.

"You need to learn to be quicker. That was a nice try, but you need to react faster next time," he called out as he walked towards the stage. The boy jumped at the presence of the voice. He thought he was alone. Putting his hand up to block the glare of the spotlight, he turned to look at the source of the voice. Sora climbed up onto the stage.

"Who are you?" the blonde student asked.

"I'm Sora," he replied and extended his hand, smiling. The student shook his hand, giving a small 'um'. He cleared his throat.

"I'm Jaune. Jaune Arc. I don't think I've ever seen you around here. Are you new?" he questioned. Sora didn't feel like explaining. He settled on merely shrugging, confident that Jaune wouldn't call him out. Hopefully. Sora changed the topic.

"You need to be quicker. You need to adapt to your enemy's attack. Proccess their actions and react. They won't give you the leisure of time," Sora crossed his arms, listing off tips he hoped was helpful. Nobody had ever really taught him to fight. It was all just trial by fire for him. Sure he had trained by fighting Riku, but even that was barely training. Mostly getting knocked on his ass, getting up and trying again. The results were mostly the same: Him flat on his ass and Riku smiling smugly over him.

"Look, I don't doubt you're a good fighter and all, but I think I got this," Jaune said to him breaking his chain of thought. Sora raised a brow at him.

"I don't know... Uh, I mean no offence, but it looks like you need help," Sora jerked a thumb towards the practice bot, now idle. Jaune furrowed his brows and sighed.

"Listen, I said I got this. I don't want help from anyone. This is something I need to do by myself. If I can't then... I'm just a failure. I need to do this."

That took Sora off guard. He thought that Jaune was just another student honing his skills, but it seemed that his combat prowess was tied to something bigger.

"Jaune, what are you talking about?" a female voice asked from the darkness. A tall red haired girl climbed up on stage. She was wearing an expression of concern.

"P-Pyrrha! What are you uh doing here?" Jaune smiled sheepishly at his teammate. She crossed her arms and looked at her friend. She shook her head.

"I heard everything, Jaune. That is very foolish thinking. You do realize that we are a team? We would gladly help you! You don't have to do it alone, out of a misguided sense of pride," she ranted at the blonde. She looked dissapointed in him. Sora stepped back a step or two.

"No, Pyrrha. I'm team leader. I can't be weak. I get that you're all concerned and want to help and I really do appreciate that. But... I've had enough of it. I'm sick of being the helpless damsel in distress, calling for his friends every time I need help. Do you see that statue outside the main building? That's Davion Arc. I walk past that statue everytime we go to class. Every day I'm reminded of the weight on my shoulders. Every day I walk past him, I know he would be dissapointed in me if he were still alive. I'm an Arc. I have to do this," Jaune poured out. Pyrrha was left gaping open mouthed at the Arc's admission. Sora snorted at that. They both turned to him.

"Do you really think anyone great ever accomplished anything without even a bit of help? Do you honestly believe that Davion over there didn't get help from his friends? I get that you think he accomplished a lot in his life, and he probably did most of the work. But sometimes you gotta let someone else cross the 't's and dot the 'i's. That's what friends are there for. I learned the value of friendship a while back, and I'm stronger for it. You have some really good friends, Jaune. They want to help you. Let them help you. Don't take 'em for granted. They're more important than your pride."

"I... I didn't..." Jaune blushed bright red. Sora smiled. He had never been known to be a wise speaker. Maybe some of master Yen Sid was rubbing off on him. Pyrrha rushed forward and enveloped the young Arc in a hug. Sora, feeling like he was invading, retreated down the steps of the stage. He looked back as he walked out, and he thought he could make out Pyrrha mouthing 'thank you'. Sora found his way back to the dorms and back into RWBY's room. The wall clock read 5:30. He lay down on the sleeping bag, figuring he could squeeze out a few hours of sleep. He slept a dreamless sleep.

Blake was the first to wake up. She did her early morning rituals in silence. Meditating, showering, then a book. She buried herself in the latest to her collection, 'The Cowboys of Bebop', and almost didn't notice Sora waking up. He yawned noisily and headed towards the bathroom. He exited after a few moments. Just then, a knock on the door was heard. Sora looked to Blake. She shrugged and opened it, finding Professor Ozpin on the other side. He smiled softly at her.

"Good morning, Miss Belladonna. I'm relieved to see you back safe, as with the rest of your team," he greeted the raven haired girl.

"Thank you, Professor Ozpin," she suspected he wasn't here just to make pleasentries. She was right.

"The police will be here shortly. I suggest you go wake your team up before they arrive. You shall tell them the truth. I, however, am here to speak to your new companion," he walked into the room, and his eyes met Sora's immediately. Sora felt a little intimidated by the man. He turned to look at Blake. Her expression remained neutral, betraying nothing.

"Now, young man, kindly follow me to my office," he said and turned on his heel out of the room. Sora looked again to Blake. She mouthed 'follow him', and gave him a light shove out the door. He heard the door then click behind him. With no other choice left, Sora began walking behind the older man. What did he want from Sora? As far he was aware, he was just another survivor of the train crash who was bunking in Beacon for the night. He couldn't have known... right? They walked in silence.

Professor Ozpin's office was located at the very top of the tallest tower in Beacon. Sora entered in after him. The room was already occupied by a blonde woman leaning against the single desk in the office. It wasn't very big, only slightly bigger than the dorms, Sora guessed. It reminded him of master Yen Sid's tower, only a bit more disorganized and way less grand. The professor took a seat behind the desk and gestured for Sora to take a seat across from him. Sora slowly took a seat, wary of his situation.

"What is your name?" the white haired man asked. His voice contained no hint of malice. He was asking a question and he expected Sora to answer.

"Sora. Sora Hikari," he responded impassively. The blonde lady pushed up her glasses and crossed her arms.

"Well, Sora Hikari, you might have some idea why we have called you here. We have some questions for you," he took the mug on the desk and took a sip.

"Do you know who I am?" Sora shook his head. He thought he caught his name when Blake said it.

"Professor Ozpin?" he offered. The professor took another sip and smiled.

"Yes, that is my name. I am the headmaster of this school. This here is Professor Goodwitch," he gestured towards the blonde. She remained impassive. He took yet another sip from his mug. How much coffee did this man consume?

"Now Sora, can you tell us where you come from?" he asked the keyblade wielder. Sora looked back and forth between Headmaster Ozpin and Professor Goodwitch. There was no weaseling his way out of this one. He sighed. Might as well tell them. He already told Ruby and the others.

"I'm from Destiny Islands," he mumbled. Ozpin made a sound in the back of his throat.

"I'm afraid that I'm not familiar with that place."

"Well, it's really far away. It's... another world."

Ozpin shut his eyes and leaned back on his chair, mind swimming at the implications. Glynda furrowed her brow at the boy. While she trusted Ozpin with her life, she still had to make sure.

"How do we know you're telling the truth?" she questioned, voice betraying no hint of emotion. Sora felt uneasy around her. He dug into his pocket for the star shard and placed it on the headmaster's desk. Ozpin opened his eyes and glanced at the object. A little glass star.

"This is how I got here. I found it lying on the ground, and it just sort of... went off. Next thing I know, I'm in the middle of a swarm of heartless," he explained. Both Ozpin and Glynda pushed their glasses up.

"If you'd could, please explain to us fully what happened yesterday," the headmaster asked hin politely. Sora took a breath and started to explain.

Ozpin listened to him attentively, not making a sound until the boy was done. Once Sora was done recalling the events of the previois day, Ozpin clasped his hands together and turned to Glynda, a meaningful look on his face. She nodded and said to Sora,

"You are allowed to go now. Stay with team RWBY. We may want to contact you in the future. We'll be keeping this for the moment, for closer inspection," she picked up the star shard.

Sora nodded and got up from his seat. Then Ozpin spoke up at last.

"One last question. May I see your weapon?"

Sora gave a quizzical look before complying. He raised his hand up, palm outwards. He summoned oathkeeper in a flash of white light. Ozpin grinned, delighted at the keyblade. Sora smiled politely at the two and left the office.

He reached the dorms after a fair amount of backtracking and getting lost. He turned the knob of the door to RWBY's room, and found it locked. Sora frowned and tried knocking on the door. He waited a few moments before knocking again. No response. He gave a small sigh. They were probably out for breakfast, he thought. He leaned against the door and slid down into a sitting position, resigning himself to waiting for the girls to return. His stomach growled softly. Sora pressed a hand against his stomach and gave a small groan. Then, the door directly across from him opened, revealing Jaune, the blonde student from the night before. His eyes widened at the sight of Sora.

"Sora! What are you doing here? Aren't you gonna have breakfast?" he asked, surprised. Sora smiled at him.

"I was waiting for some people to come back. But I could use some food,"

"Well, you wanna go grab a bite? I'll introduce you to my friends. I'm sure they'll like you!" the blonde exclaimed happily. Sora got up from his position and nodded at Jaune. With that, they both went off.

"I- uh. I never really thanked you, Sora," Jaune muttered as they walked. Sora waved a dismissive hand at him.

"No, really. Thank you," he said meaningfully to his companion. Sora smiled and nodded.

"Just remember what I said, okay?" he put a hand on his shoulder. Jaune nodded. They both entered the cafeteria, Jaune leading the way. They made a beeline towards a table at the far end.

"Hey guys, this is Sora-" he began, before being cut off by a fervent Ruby.

"Sora! You're back!" she exclaimed, sitting up from her chair. Jaune had led him to the table shared by JNPR and RWBY. Sora grinned at the four girls.

"Hey, guys!" Sora waved at them.

"I see you all have aquainted yourselves," the tall red head girl, Pyrhha, commented. She gave Sora a small smile. Ren and Nora were the only ones left out of the loop. Nora huffed.

"You haven't introduces us!" she whined.

"Oh! Ren, Nora, this is Sora," Jaune said. Sora gave them a little 'hi'. Ren nodded and sipped on his coffee. Nora shot up out of her seat and pointed at the brown haired boy.

"Our names rhyme!" she excitedly said. There was a certain infectious energy about the orange haired girl. She seemed ready to just bounce around the room at any moment. Sora gave a chuckle.

"Yeah, they do," he took a seat beside Yang. She had a faraway look in her eyes.

"What did Professor Ozpin want? Did he ask you about...?" Ruby asked, aware of the presence of the other teams. She didn't want to spill any information that Sora didn't want disclosed. Sora nodded and mouthed 'he knows'. Ruby's mouth formed a small 'o'. Sora decided to change topics.

"So what did you guys do?"

"Well the police showed up, and we answered their questions about the incident," Weiss was the one who answered his question. She looked at Sora meaningfully. He sensed that they all had something to discuss later. He nodded and looked back to Yang. She still had her thousand yard stare. Ruby noticed it too, and snapped her fingers to gather her sister's attention. Yang broke out of her reverie with a jump.

"Hey, sis. You okay?" the younger sibling asked. Yang cleared her throat and nodded.

"Yeah, it's just... We were the only ones who made it out, right? The only ones?" her question was met with a nod from her sister.

"It's... I dunno. Could we have done anything? I just... nothing. Nobody else. We're the only ones," she muttered, laying her head down on the table dejectedly. Ruby's eyes widened. She didn't really think about it, instead greatful that her team made it out alive.

"Oh, Yang..." Pyrhha whispered. It was then that the previously silent Blake spoke up.

"Yang... Don't be so hard on yourself. It all happened so fast. There was nothing we could have done. Really," she said sincerely. Her gaze didn't waver from Yang's. She reached her hand out over Yang's. The action seemed to cheer up the blonde. She raised her head up and gave Blake a grin. Sora smiled at the interaction. Weiss cleared her throat.

"We should probably get back, don't you think?" she asked her team. Ruby nodded.

"Right, bye guys!" she waved as the whole team departed from the cafeteria. Sora sneaked a piece of toast and a cup of tea befkre leaving.

They arrived back to the room. Ruby unlocked the door and everyone piled in. Sora took a seat on the couch and gave a small sigh.

"Guess we got a lot of things to discuss, huh?"


	4. A Wild Riku Appeared!

In the dead of night, as soon as Ozpin was asleep, the star shard began to vibrate. It shined brightly, and vibrated violently. Then in a flash, it was gone. Somewhere in Vytal, a man in a black cloak sensed this, and smiled. All was going according to plan. Nothing could stop him this time.

Riku crossed his arms and leaned against the tree. Sora was late, _again._ He looked on against the sunset. It had been a month since they had defeated Xemnas. King Mickey and the others had returned back to their castle and peace was restored among the worlds. Everyone had been taking it easy for a while. Riku was damned sure they had deserved it.

"Riku!" a female voice called out from behind him. Kairi. Riku turned to face her, concern etched on his face. Was something wrong? She leaned on her knees, catching her breath. Riku noticed a paper clutched in her left hand. She eventually recollected herself, and presented him the paper.

"What's this?" he asked as he took it from her. It was a note from Sora. It read:

_R, K._

_Went out to Twilight Town to visit Hayner and the other guys. Be back soon._

Riku folded the paper and slid it in his pocket. He looked up at Kairi.

"When was this written?"

"I haven't seen him since last night, so," She toyed with her hand. Riku frowned. Something felt... wrong about all this. Sora would have been back by now, he thought.

"Something feels wrong about this. He would've been back by now. I'll go check this out," he said to her, summoning a dark corridor. Kairi looked dismayed. After everything, Riku and Sora were going off again. Riku gave her a smile, sensing her fears.

"Don't worry, I'll be back soon with Sora. Sooner than last time, at least. It's gonna be okay, Kairi. Promise," he ruffled her hair. She rolled her eyes playfully before smiling and nodding. Riku entered the corridor.

"If I'm not back in a couple days, alert the king," he called out as an afterthought. Couldn't hurt to be safe, he thought. He exited the corridor at the train station in Twilight Town. Time to look for Hayner and the rest. Riku headed down to their usual spot. He easily made his way around Twilight Town, familiar with its geography after having spent time in the simlation version of it. This must be it, he mused as he entered an alleyway. He pushed through the tarp acting as a makeshift door. Three teenagers were sitting at various positions in the alley, eating ice-cream. The blonde one noticed him first.

"What do you want? This is our spot, get lost," he gruffly told the silver haired teen. Riku frowned at him. He could stand to learn a thing or two about manners.

"I was looking for Sora. Have you guys seen him around?" he asked the group. The other two members shook their head, whilst the blonde haired teen crossed his arms and glared at Riku. The girl wearing orange stood up from her couch, snapping her fingers.

"You must be Riku!" she said to him. Riku nodded at her. He figured Sora must have mentioned him before.

"So, you haven't seen him, then?"

"No, why do you ask?" asked the last of the three, a boy wearing a baggy red shirt.

"Well, he said he came here to see you..." Riku crossed his arms and shook his head. This was definitely weird. Where could Sora be?

"Oh no. Did something happen?" asked the girl. Riku appreciated her concern.

"No, I don't know. I'm gonna go take a look around," he turned to walk away from the group aprubtly. There had to be some clues in Twilight Town. Riku decided to head to the mansion, hoping that his search wouldn't prove fruitless. He reached the entrance, noticing that the gate was already open. He stepped into the courtyard, noting the silence of the place. Guess there aren't anymore Heartless here, he thought. Riku walked to the front entrance, when a glimmer on the floor caught his eye. He turned to face it. The object reponsible was a small glass star lying on the grass. It must have reflected the sun into my eye, he thought as he walked over to it.

He crouched down to better examine the object. It was a star with a lightning bolt sticking out. Riku grabbed the star and turned it over in his hand. It looked familiar... He had definitely seen it somewhere. He stood up and looked around the courtyard. Had someone left this here? Was this Sora's? As Riku was mulling it over, the star shard was responding to the touch of a user. It detected a keyblade wielder, and started vibrating. Riku almost didn't notice it acting strangely. He help up the thing for a closer inspection, and was immediately whisked away.

It was disorientating, to say the least. The thing moved about randomly, ragdolling Riku, who was clutching on or dear life, all over the the place. Riku clenched his teeth as the thing zipped about. There was no time to do anything, barely enough time to even think about what was going. He just hoped it would stop soon, he was starting to get sick. Just as he thought that, the thing stopped in mid-air, and began diving towards the ground. Riku let out a yell. This was really not how this mission was supposed to go.

"First of all, I feel that we should inform you of what Yang saw in the train," Weiss gestured towards the blonde.

"Perhaps it has something to do with you an your... you know," she continued. Sora gave a slight nod and looked to Yang.

"Well, see. I was exploring the train, 'cause I was bored and all, when I end up in the cargo section. When I went in, I saw someone in there. I couldn't really make him out, it was really dark. But I caught a glimpse of him. He was just some dude in a really large black jacket. As soon as I saw him, he was gone, so I decided to head back but then the train went and blew up. Then... yeah, you know," Yang recounted her experience. She gave a shrug at the end. Sora gaped at her. A black coat? Could it be another member of Organization XIII? That's not... I defeated all of them, he thought. Sora clenched his fist. This did not spell good news.

"Do you know something about this, Sora?" asked Ruby. Sora looked at her, silver eyes questioning.

"I... maybe? Um, it might be one of the members of Organization XIII. They're the only ones I know who A) Would do this, and B) Wear dumb black coats," Sora listed off on his fingers.

"Why they would do this? I don't know. My first guess would be to try yet another time to capture Kingdom Hearts," Sora shook his head. He had had enough of Kingdom Hearts to last a lifetime.

"We gotta get to the bottom of this, and fast," he slammed his fist into an open palm and stood up.

"Anyone got any idea where we should start?" Sora asked, looking around the room. His question was met with blank faces. He didn't know what he expected. Sora sighed explosively and flopped back onto the couch. They had a lot of work to do.

Riku was pretty sure he had broken something. He groaned as he flipped over onto his back and mentally cursed the star shard for being responsible for his current state. Riku got up into a seated position and dragged himself to a nearby tree to lean against it. He made a mental note to never do that again. After resting for a few minutes, he decided to try and get up. He gave another groan as he felt the bruises on his back and face. As he gingerly worried a bruisr on his cheek, he began taking stock of the situation. He was in the woods, alone. He didn't recognize the place.

"I'm wasting time here. I need to get back to Twilight Town," Riku muttered to himself. He held his hand up to summon a dark corridor, when he saw something in the corner of his eyes. Riku snapped around, summoning his keyblade, Way to the Dawn. A Neoshadow was standing there, looking at him. Riku grimaced.

"Heartless?" he asked aloud. As if they heard him, several Neoshadows appeared out of nowhere to aid their comrade. Me and my big mouth, he thought. Riku readied himself to conter the first strike they made. He watched them warily. Then, all of them stopped. They froze for a moment, before disappearing. Riku slowly put down his weapon. What was that? The Heartless had never done that before. Someone was commanding them. The silver haired teen banished his weapon before looking around. He had to get his bearings, find out exactly where it is he was and where he should be going. He couldn't exactly leave to find Sora now that he had discovered there were still Heartless around. It was his duty as a key bearer.

"Sorry, Sora," he said out loud. Maybe Sora could hear him, somehow, wherever he was. Riku scanned for a tree to easily climb. He needed to get up high.

Sora got up and looked outside the window. The sky was downcast, giving the city skyline a depressing feel to it. The rest of team RWBY were lounging around in various positions amongst the room. Sora crossed his arms. With no lead to go on, they pretty much had nothing they could do. Sora walked away from the window and paced the room. He uncrossed his arms when he felt something with his right hand. He held it out, curious at what was causing the strange feeling. Suddenly, Oathkeeper materialized in his hand, seemingly of its own volition. Sora leapt back a bit and yelped. The others in the room looked at him, curious.

"What's wrong, Sora?" Ruby lept down from her bed.

"I don't kno- ulp!" Sora was interrupted as his keyblade tugged on his arm. It was like a magnet, attracting to its opposite. He gave an 'oh' when he realized that it was detecting Heartless. Then he gave another 'oh' as he realized that meant there were Heartless in Beacon. Sora turned to the rest.

"Heartless!" he exclaimed, before running out the door, letting the keyblade guide him. The others were hot on his trail. It looked like things were about to get interesting at Beacon.

From his perch, Riku could see the whole forest. He scouted the place, looking for any signs of civilisation. He looked East and saw what looked like a city, a huge tower acting like a beacon. And at the edge of the forest, there was a huge mass of black headed towards it. Heartless. Riku furrowed his brow before climbing down and sprinting towards it. It was going to be a long day.

"Sora, wait! Where are you going?" Ruby shouted after the chocolate haired boy, who was running like a bat out of hell. He offered no explanation other then 'Heartless!'. Ruby gave a little grunt as she saw that they were nearing the entrance to the Emerald Forest. The one filled with all kinds of Grimm. Sora brushed past a student as he ran, knocking him over. Sora continued on. Ruby leapt over the poor guy, no time for apologies. She heard Yang behind her shout,

"Sorry, Church!"

As they reached the edge of the forest, it became apparent why Spra was in such a rush. There was just a horde of Heartless in there. They looked like slightly bigger versions of the ones they had fought by the cliffside. Sora stopped at the edge of forest and give a tiny 'woah'. Ruby came to a halt beside him and withdrew Crescent Rose.

"We got this, Sora," she said to him. Sora nodded and poised in his battle stance. Everyone took positions flanking the two of them, weapons ready.

"This is gonna be fuuun~" Yang sing-songed, reloading her gauntlets. While she didn't share her sister's excitable attitude about fighting, Ruby had to agree with her a little bit. Sora looked to his companions, searching their expressions. All of them looked determined, ready to fight.

"We're with you hundred percent, Sora," Ruby caught his gaze and nodded at him. Sora smiled at her.

"Alright then. Let's do this!" he took off sprinting towards the giant mob. All four girls followed suite. Sora stabbed the first Heartless he came into contact with. He followed up with a series of vicious strikes to whichever unlucky Neoshadow was next. He slashed and striked at any opponent, looking like a blur of black and white from the outside looking in.

Ruby shot and slashed in all directions. The Heartless were strictly quantity over quality. They were mindless drones, zombies, whose only objective was to consume hearts. She cleaved through the hordes easily, using her momentum to swing the huge scythe around. Rose petals littered the battlefield as she fought.

Riku could hear signs of fighting. Gunshots came from the direction of the Heartless, spurring him on. As Riku came up behind the huge horde of Heartless, took a running leap, before diving into the fray, slashing several Heartless as he did so. He fought the monsters with ease, combining the power of darkness with his strikes to decimate anything his keyblade came into contact. He took little notice of the others in the field, his own fight taking priority in his mind.

Sora wasn't sure what triggered it. Maybe it was the adrenalin of the fight, but somehow he had summoned a second keyblade. Oblivion, Oathkeeper's sister weapon was wielded in Sora's left hand. He wasn't quite sure why, but something about the fight was... familiar. He felt a twinge of sadness in his heart all of a sudden. Sora felt confused at the sudden outburst of emotion inside of him. All of it morphed into rage, which spurred him to fight on even harder. Deep in the reccesses of his mind, he thought, felt, the word _Roxas._ He didn't pay much attention to it, the fight instead taking precedence. There would be time for explanations later.

Riku felt the herd thinning as less and less Heartless leapt at him. He cut down one in front of him and snapped left to lunge at another. All he found, however, was empty air. He did a full revolution, confirming the absence of Heartless. Riku guessed that whoever was commanding them ordered a retreat. He relaxed himself a bit and banished his keyblade. With no more Heartless left to fight, Riku had time to think. He looked around at the other fighters. There were four girls, all about his age, sheathing their various weapons. Riku paused for a moment when he saw a fifth. It couldn't be...

"Sora!" he yelled out. The teen clad in black perked up at the sound of his name. He looked around, gaze fibally landing on Riku.

"Riku!" Sora exclaimed, overjoyed to see his friend. He took off running towards the silver haired teen. The others looked at the two.

"What are you doing- How did you even get here, man?!" Sora threw a friendly punch at the older teen's shoulder. Riku grinned at the brown-haired teen.

"I should be asking you the same thing, Sora. I went to Twilight Town looking for you, I found this, and the next thing I know I end up here," Riku shrugged, one hand on his hip, the other brandishing the star shard. He looked over Sora's shoulder and saw the four other girls looking at them both.

"What's going on?" the girl clad in a red cloak asked. Sora turned to face the four.

"Guys, this is Riku," he gestured towards his friend. Ruby looked incredulously at Sora.

"'The' Riku? The same guy you told us about? Consumed by darkness and all that?" she crossed her arms and leaned on one foot.

Riku rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly at her comment. Sora shrugged and nodded. He turned to face Riku.

"Riku, these are my friends. Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang. They're team RWBY," Sora gave another shrug a the team name. Riku nodded his head in understanding. An acronym of their names.

"Well well well. If it ain't you guys!" a voice came from nowhere. It sounded strangely familiar to Sora and Riku. They were positive they had heard the voice before. The group looked around, searching for the source of the voice. A figure finally materialized from darkness in front of the group.

"You!" Yang exclaimed at the hooded figure.

"Me. Hey, gang! Playing hero again, are we?" Braig lowered his hood to reveal his face. Sora and Riku gasped. They clearly did not expect this. Sora summoned his keyblade.

"Xigbar? I-I defeated you!" he exclaimed, confused.

"You don't need to be so proud about it... Ven?" Braig tapped the side of his head.

"No, wait. Sora," he snapped his finger and pointed at Sora.

"Could never keep track of you squirts," Braig shrugged.

"You better start talking sense fast, Xigbar," Riku brandished his keyblade alongside Sora.

"First of all, it's Braig now. Secondly... can't an old friend just drop by to say hi? I just wanted to congratulate you on your spectacular performance just now. Seriously, bravo!" Braig gave a humourless chuckle. Sora got visibly annoyed at him.

"We want answers, Braig! Who's controlling the Heartless? What are you planning to do?!" Braig gave another chuckle, now of genuine mirth.

"No wonder I can't keep track of you juniors. All of you have the same facial expression!" he snorted. He recovered from his laughing fit before smiling at the whole group. He looked at an imaginary watch on his wrist and feigned surprise.

"Well, look at the time! Excuse me, will ya, I got places to be," he casually waved a hand behind him and summoned a dark corridor. Yang had had enough of his cryptic talk. The guy pissed her off. She activated her gauntlets and shot a shell at Braig as he turned around. The shot didn't connect, instead deflected off by some type of force field.

"Nice try, Blondie. You kids play nice now!" he dissapeared into the darkness, which promptly dissapeared as well. Sora banished his keyblade and scratched his head.

"What was that all about? Guy's a nutcase," Sora shrugged. Riku turned to look at his friend.

"Something big's going on. We have to get to the bottom of this," he crossed his arms.

"Yeah, well. We got nothin'," Sora gestured towards himself and RWBY. Riku shook his head.

"We gotta alert the King," he replied. Sora nodded in agreement.

"But how're we gonna do that?"

Riku raised his hand to summon a dark corridor. Nothing happened. He looked at his palm, puzzled. He tried again, concentrating. Nothing again.

"I-I can't..." Riku stammered. He had gotten used to being able to do it, free to go anywhere.

"Something's intefering with it..." Riku mused. Yang had enough confusion.

"Okay, I'm not the only one feeling a little confused right?" she turned to her companions. All of them nodded in agreement.

"I admit I am quite curious about this," Blake offered.

"Care to fill us in, guys?" Ruby crossed her arms. Sora sighed and turned to Riku pleadingly. He shook his head.

"But you know the whole story! You still haven't told me everything that happened while I was asleep!" Sora said to his friend, exasperated. Riku pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Alright, fine."

_**AN: I'm playing through KH2 again, just because. I forgot how much of a drag Port Royale is. God. That's all I have to say.**_


End file.
